African cicLids dying.

This is a discussion on African cicLids dying. within the Cichlids forums, part of the Freshwater and Tropical Fish category; -->
Hi. First time w african. I bought 8 3 days ago plus a tiger pleco. They were all small, bout 1 inch. Suddenly they ...

Hi. First time w african. I bought 8 3 days ago plus a tiger pleco. They were all small, bout 1 inch. Suddenly they have all been dying off. Ammonia and nitrites 0. Nitrates 60 and dropping. Ph of 6.5 +/-. temp- 86 - 82 F. What could be wrong. No disease signs btw. They were all energetic. PLS HELP!

Africans need much harder water, the rift lakes range in PH from 8.2-9.0. Africans can survive at around 7.6-8.0 if they are tank raised and not F-1 or wild.

There are 3 or 4 plecos that are sold under the name "tiger pleco" but all of them require soft water. The only plecos I have seen do well in African tanks are bristlenose, common and rhino plecos. I assume it is because those three tend to be easily bred in captivity and therefore are somewhat adjusted to harder water.

It's very unlikely that you have extremely hard water and a low PH. PH tends to go hand in hand with hardness. Are you testing your water with liquid test kit or strips? I have found the test strips are especially inaccurate when it comes to testing hardness.

yeah the salt water one wont work. In my Tanganyika tank I put a bag of crushed coral or aragonite (sp?) in the filter to raise the waters buffering capacity and therefore the PH. It takes my water which is about 7.6 out of the tap up to about 8.0-8.2. You could try that, but if you truly have hard water already I don't know how much it will help.